Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

In 1897, an 8-year-old girl, Virginia O'Hanlon, wrote to the editor of the New York Sun asking if Santa Claus really existed. The response is one of the most famous and moving newspaper editorials ever written:

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give your life its highest beauty and joy.

Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal life with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished."

• Read the complete Editorial

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